Templates are the reusable designs behind everything you send. There are two kinds:
Email templates — for messages you send by email.
Document templates — for things you print (letters, statements) as PDF.
Standard vs. your own templates
Standard templates come built in — giving statements, gift receipts, monthly statements, in-kind receipts, and more. You can use them as-is or copy and customize them.
Custom templates are ones you create and design yourself.
Merge fields personalize each copy
Templates use merge fields — placeholders that fill in per recipient when you send. Common ones include:
Organization — your name, address, logo, tax ID (EIN). Set these under Settings → Organization Settings.
Donor / contact — name, address, email. Address is available as one joined field, or as separate parts (street, city, state, ZIP) so a mailed letter can print a proper post-office address block with the city, state, and ZIP on their own line.
Contribution — amount, fund, date.
Date range & summary — the period and totals used on giving statements.
You drop these into the design and CoolFocus fills them in for each person.
How to insert a merge field
In the template editor, click into a text area where you want the field, then type an opening curly brace {. A searchable "Insert a field..." list pops up — start typing to filter, then pick a field to drop it in. It's inserted as a token (like {{FirstName}}) that fills in when you send.
The list shows the fields for the record type you're building the template for (a donor's name, a contribution's amount, and so on), plus system fields like Current Date and Full Address. For richer layouts — such as a table of contributions on a giving statement — use the editor's / (slash) menu to insert a data block instead of a single field.
Data block types
Beyond simple text, the editor's slash menu supports several data block types you can drop into a template layout:
Data table — a table built from a record's own fields (for example, a list of a donor's contributions).
Sub-collection table — a table built from a related list of records (for example, the contributions linked to a household), with an optional row limit.
HTML block — free-form rich text/HTML, useful for custom notes or disclosures that include merge fields.
Social links — a row of links to your organization's social profiles, with each platform toggled on or off.
Letterhead — your organization's logo, name, address, phone, email, and (optionally) tax ID, with a divider line under it.
Amendments — a compliance section for chart print/PDF templates. It lists the entity's addenda (late entries, addenda, and amendments) and any unlock history, with author, date, and reason for each. This block prints nothing at all, no heading included, when the chart has no addenda or unlock history, so a clean chart never shows an empty "Amendments" section. See Locked Records and the Addendum Flow for what gets recorded.
These block types render the same way whether the template is used for an email (HTML) or a printed/emailed PDF document, so a document template with a letterhead, HTML block, social links, or a sub-collection table will look consistent in both formats. The same goes for headings and paragraphs: a text color you set in the editor, and any bold or italic text, print the same way in the PDF as they show in the preview.
Adding images to a template
An image block can upload a new file or reuse one already in your image library.
Supported file types: PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, and BMP, up to 10MB per file.
If you designed the artwork in Canva, download it as a PNG or JPG and upload it here. Once uploaded, the image is saved to your image library so you can reuse it in other email and document templates without uploading it again.
Send a test email before it goes live
While editing an email template, click Send test email above the editor. This sends a fully rendered copy to any staff email address you enter, so you can check wording and branding before donors, clients, or volunteers see it.
CoolFocus renders the template with a real record from the template's Root Collection to fill in merge fields. For a contribution-based template like a CoolPay donation receipt, that means an actual contribution supplies the amount, fund, and donor details in the test copy.
CoolFocus saves any unsaved edits to the template first, so the test always reflects what is currently on the canvas.
The subject line is prefixed with [Test] so a test copy is never mistaken for a real send.
A test send does not create a correspondence record on any donor, client, or volunteer, and it does not mark a receipt as sent. It has no effect on that record's history or state.
If the template's Root Collection has no records yet, add one before sending a test, since CoolFocus needs a record to pull merge data from.
Send test email is only available for email templates. Document templates (PDFs) don't have this option; use the print/email preview from a record instead.
Creating and managing templates
Templates are managed in the templates area, and you can also start a new one from the + More menu when sending from a record. A few things to know:
Permissions — building or editing templates requires the manage-templates permission, so it's typically an administrator task.
Show on actions — a template set to show on actions appears in the Email/Print picker for the right record type.
Archiving — archiving a template removes it from that picker right away, so it can no longer be picked for a send, though it stays in the template library with an Archived badge for reference.
Duplicating — you can duplicate a template from its entry in the template list or from the Actions menu inside the editor; either way, the copy opens in the module you're already working in.
The Email/Print picker also offers templates filed under any other record type in the same area of CoolFocus, so an email template filed under Donors is also offered on Grants, Pledges, and In-Kind Gifts, as long as you have permission to view that record type.
Root Collection
Every template is filed under one record type, called its Root Collection — Donors, Contributions, Clients, Vouchers, and so on. It controls three things:
Where the template lives — the template library groups templates by their Root Collection, so a template filed under Donors is the one you'll find and use on donor records.
What the picker offers — when you send or print from a record, the Email/Print picker offers templates whose Root Collection matches the record you're on.
Which merge fields you can insert — the editor shows the fields for the record type the template belongs to (a donor's name, a contribution's amount, and so on).
Where to set it: open Template Details from the editor toolbar. Root Collection is a dropdown built from your organization's own record types, so you pick a collection instead of typing its name — a template can't be filed against a collection that doesn't exist, which used to make a template disappear everywhere with no way to tell why.
How one gets created: Root Collections aren't created from the template editor — the dropdown list is built from your organization's record types. When a new record type is set up for templates, it appears in the dropdown automatically; you usually don't need to think about it, because CoolFocus files a template under the record type you started from. If a record type you expect is missing from the list, contact us and we'll check its settings.